Flavors play a critical role in the appreciation of products, especially food and beverage products. This is also particularly true for animal food products, such as human food, cat food and dog food. Aroma also plays an important role in the appreciation of non-food products.
A number of feeding trials have shown that canned tuna products consistently feed well in cats, regardless of whether the cats are considered fish or non-fish eaters. Canned tuna products are also recognized by cat owners as being well-liked by cats. Additionally, the aroma of canned tuna is not found to be as offensive as are most canned pet foods in part because canned tuna is also sold as food for humans. Much work has been attempted to improve the palatability and aroma of foods. Most of this work related to protein based foods and pet foods has been directed at general meaty and dairy flavors. However, none of this work has been shown to create an aroma with the likeness to canned tuna, a flavor which is particularly desirable to most cats. The aroma of canned tuna is very complex and differs greatly from that of raw or grilled tuna. There remains a need for an aroma composition that smells like tuna.
The inventors have surprisingly found that combination of just three or four aroma compounds, which on their own do not resemble a tuna aroma, together mimic the smell of canned tuna as tested by human panel.